Madejski: Thatcher Tribute Will Not Happen

Reading chairman Sir John Madejski believes there was never a chance that the idea of Baroness Thatcher receiving a minute's silence before this weekend's matches would happen.

Reading will hold a silence ahead of the league game against Liverpool on Saturday but in honour of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

That move has already been welcomed by the Hillsborough Family Support Group, which has added its weight to a belief it would be "a mistake" to afford the same tribute to Baroness Thatcher.

Madejski said: "Margaret Thatcher did so much good for this country and she deserves respect.

"Like any politician, she made mistakes but she also got an awful lot right. Maybe some people in the north of England feel differently, but if the coal mines had been working as they should they wouldn't have been closed down.

"I would have wanted a silence but I didn't think for a minute it would happen. In a way it could have been the worst thing because some people might have been jeering."